For the dwindling numbers of Second World War veterans—and the aged generally—the ordeals of quarantine could seem trivial given all that they have seen and experienced. Many have survived pandemics of the past, not to mention The Great Depression, a world war, a Cold War, and untold other trials and tribulations.

With COVID-19 sweeping through nursing homes and retirement residences, the greatest generation has become the most vulnerable generation, finding itself on the front lines again, this time facing a global pandemic that by early May had claimed 250,000 lives worldwide, 3,900 of them in Canada.

Just shy of three months after the 9/11 attacks in 2001, the United States believed it had found the lair of the al-Qaida mastermind, Osama bin Laden, in the Tora Bora cave complex in the Safed Koh mountains in eastern Afghanistan. Reports of smoke coming from a mountaintop after a previous bombing raid had focused U.S. attention on one area of the cave and tunnel network. They bombed it but failed to capture the terrorist.

In May 2002, Lieutenant-Colonel Pat Stogran led an international task force, including 400 Canadians, in Operation Torii, a three-day mission beginning May 4, 2002, to find and destroy the complex, preventing it from being used again by the Taliban and al-Qaida.